Putnam County tops the list with a devastating 21 drunk driving deaths per 100,000 people annually, down slightly from our 2020 data of 24 deaths per 100,000.
In the United States, drunk driving is a deadly scourge. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drunk driving claims a life every 48 minutes.
As personal injury attorneys we regularly bear witness to the tragic aftermath of drunk driving. Many of our clients are those who are left behind to pick up the pieces after someone’s decision to drive drunk ends in destruction, injury, and death.
Despite the efforts of legislators, educators, law enforcement, and countless advocacy groups, the problem of drunk driving persists in Florida, with some regions of the state being particularly, tragically, afflicted.
Given their size it’s easy to understand why some large Florida cities – Miami, Tampa, Orlando, etc. – would experience the most total drunk driving crashes and fatalities. However, if you look at the numbers on a per-capita basis the results are surprising. If you or a loved one was injured in a drunk driving accident, be sure to call our drunk driving accident lawyers for a free consultation.
For complete details on the methodology used to come up with these rankings, click here.
The 10 Florida Counties with the Highest Drunk Driving Fatality Rates
#1 Putnam County
Drunk driving deaths per 100k: 21.41
Putnam County has a modest population of 74,731 residents and is between Jacksonville, Gainesville, St. Augustine, and Daytona Beach. Its location might explain why it tops the list with a drunk driving death rate of 21.41 people per 100,000 people.
#2 Flagler County
Drunk driving deaths per 100k: 12.62
Second on our list is almost half of Putnam County. Flagler County has a population of 126,705, and its largest city is Palm Coast. This county witnessed 16 drunk driving deaths in 2023, with a rate of just over 12.5 deaths per 100,000 people.
#3 Columbia County
Drunk driving deaths per 100k: 11.12
Columbia County has even fewer residents than Flagler County, with an estimated population of just over 71,908 people and a much lower rate of drunk driving deaths than Putnam County. Its rate of drunk driving fatalities in 2023 was about 11 fatalities per 100,000 people, putting it in third place on our list.
#4 Marian County
Drunk driving deaths per 100k: 10.34
Marion County is our first highly populated county on the list, with 396,415 people, and a more robust public bus system. However, despite the significant amount of public transportation available, there were 41 drunk driving deaths in Marian County in 2023, which is only a slight decrease from 42 deaths the year before.
#5 Duval County
Drunk driving deaths per 100k: 10.17
Duval County has over 1.017 million people, making it the most populous county on our list. It encompasses Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, and Neptune Beach and sees more drunk driving deaths each year than these other nine counties. In fact, Duval County witnessed 66 drunk driving deaths in 2023. However, despite this total, the overall rate is lower than other counties on this list, with about 10 deaths per 100,000 people, making it #5 on our list of most dangerous counties for drunk driving fatalities.
#6 Nassau County
Drunk driving deaths per 100k: 9.19
Nassau County is the most northeastern county in Florida, close to Jacksonville and several military bases. With a population of 97,899, its drunk driving fatality rate, based on statistics from 2023, comes out to just over 9 deaths per 100,000 people.
#7 Citrus County
Drunk driving deaths per 100k: 7.38
Citrus is a mid-sized county with a population of just over 162,529 people. Its largest community is Homosassa Springs, despite being an unincorporated area. Citrus County sees just over 7 drunk driving deaths per 100,000 people.
#8 Clay County
Drunk driving deaths per 100k: 7.31
Clay County borders Jacksonville and is home to places like Orange Park and Green Cove Springs. With a population of 232,439 people, Clay County is number 8 on our list due to there being an average of around 7 deaths per 100k people in 2023 with a total of 17 drunk driving-related deaths that year.
#9 Polk County
Drunk driving deaths per 100k: 6.11
Polk County has a higher population than most other counties on this list, with 818,330 residents. In 2023, this county witnessed 50 drunk driving deaths, which ranks second on this list. This high number of drunk driving-related deaths means that Polk County is #9 on our list, with a rate of 6.11 deaths per 100k people.
#10 Alachua County
Drunk driving deaths per 100k: 5.63
Alachua County also has a larger population and is home to Gainesville and the University of Florida. It saw a high of 47 drunk driving deaths in 2019, but the five-year average is 28.6 deaths annually. It rounds out the top 10 DUI fatality rates of a little under 6.
Methodology
- Using FDOT’s Traffic Safety Dashboard we obtained county-level Florida crash data for all Impaired Driving crashes over five years, from 2016 to 2020.
- We narrowed the list of counties down to only those with a population of over 50,000 (41 counties).
- We calculated the average number of drunk driving fatalities per year, per county over the five year span.
- To determine the number of drunk driving fatalities per year, per 100k people we used the following formula:
Average annual drunk driving fatalities ÷ (total population ÷ 100,000) = Drunk driving fatalities per 100k